PlayStation 4 Discussion

[Blzer]

Re: PlayStation 4 Discussion

Hopefully they come up with something better if they won't use 4.

That's probably just a project name.

I just don't see that as a very marketable name.

Depends on the design. To me it sounds like something that would be spherical-looking.

I mean when you think about it, Wii wasn't that great either but it sounds second nature to all of us now. I mean heck, they stuck with it by calling their new one Wii U.

"Orbis" sounds a lot more like Sega's line of console names, like Genesis and Saturn. That said, most people called those "Sega" anyway, so people will probably just call this "PlayStation" if they don't want to say "Orbis."

[nemesis04]

Re: PlayStation 4 Discussion

Depends on the design. To me it sounds like something that would be spherical-looking.

I mean when you think about it, Wii wasn't that great either but it sounds second nature to all of us now. I mean heck, they stuck with it by calling their new one Wii U.

"Orbis" sounds a lot more like Sega's line of console names, like Genesis and Saturn. That said, most people called those "Sega" anyway, so people will probably just call this "PlayStation" if they don't want to say "Orbis."

It really is no different then saying Vita. I am fine with Orbis, actually I do not care what it is called as long as it works and does what it is supposed to!

[Blzer]

Re: PlayStation 4 Discussion

It really is no different then saying Vita.

Bah, didn't even think about that. Good call then.

[CaptainZombie]

Re: PlayStation 4 Discussion

Sony : Vice President for Japan hints at possible PS4 announcement in May/June

Sony executive previews an 'important PlayStation announcement' to be made in some few months

Hiroshi Sakamoto, Sony Home Entertainment general subdirector also highlighted how important the Chilean market is for the Latin-American technology adoption.

LAS VEGAS.- We saw new products in Las Vegas, but also could talk during some minutes with some of the top executives of the main technology companies.

One of these meetings was with Hiroshi Sakamoto, Sony Home Entertainment general subdirector, who told us in a short interview that they have an important announcement related to the PlayStation consoles to be made in the coming months.

Regarding consoles, people say that Sony will make announcements this year and that would be working on the new PlayStation. Are we going to see a new model in some months?
It's still a big secret, but our Sony PlayStation friends are getting ready. I only can say that we're focused on the games related E3 event, booked for June. The announcement can take place there or even before, in May.

But are you working on a big reveal or in something complementary?
Probably the first, we plan to release big news for this date, but we have to wait at least until May.

Q: As for consoles, has said enough that Sony has ads for this year and is working on a new PlayStation. Will we see a new model in a few months?

"That's still a big secret, but our friends are preparing Sony PlayStation. I can only say that we are focused on the E3 gaming event, scheduled for June's announcement may be in that month or even earlier in May. "

Q: But are preparing a major announcement or a complement?

"Probably the first, in that time we expect to deliver great news, but we must wait until May at least."

[CaptainZombie]

Re: PlayStation 4 Discussion

Eric Mejdrich Sr Director of SOC Architecture and Principal Architect Xbox at Microsoft

Some of the following have been discussed by Sony Game engine developers for the PS4. It's possible that some may show up in both consoles to allow software developers an easier port between platforms.

In any case I believe some of the following are the special sauce being discussed. The file dates for hardware features are all by Dec 2011 which is when SemiAccurate stated the Xbox 720 started tapeout.

http://www.faqs.org/patents/inventor/eric-o-mejdrich-2/

20110285709 Allocating Resources Based On A Performance Statistic - A method includes rendering an object of a three dimensional image via a pixel shader based on a render context data structure associated with the object. The method includes measuring a performance statistic associated with rendering the object. The method also includes storing the performance statistic in the render context data structure associated with the object. The performance statistic is accessible to a host interface processor to determine whether to allocate a second pixel shader to render the object in a subsequent three-dimensional image. 11-24-2011

20110285710 Parallelized Ray Tracing - A method includes assigning a priority to a ray data structure of a plurality of ray data structures based on one or more priorities. The ray data structure includes properties of a ray to be traced from an illumination source in a three-dimensional image. The method includes identifying a portion of the three-dimensional image through which the ray passes. The method also includes identifying a slave processing element associated with the portion of the three-dimensional image. The method further includes sending the ray data structure to the slave processing element. 11-24-2011

20110289485 Software Trace Collection and Analysis Utilizing Direct Interthread Communication On A Network On Chip - Collecting and analyzing trace data while in a software debug mode through direct interthread communication (‘DITC’) on a network on chip (‘NOC’), the NOC including integrated processor (‘IP’) blocks, routers, memory communications controllers, and network interface controllers, with each IP block adapted to a router through a memory communications controller and a network interface controller, where each memory communications controller controlling communications between an IP block and memory, and each network interface controller controlling inter-IP block communications through routers, including enabling the collection of software debug information in a selected set of IP blocks distributed through the NOC, each IP block within the selected set of IP blocks having a set of trace data; collecting software debugging information via the set of trace data; communicating the set of trace data to a destination repository; and analyzing the set of trace data at the destination repository. 11-24-2011


20110316855 Parallelized Streaming Accelerated Data Structure Generation - A method includes receiving at a master processing element primitive data that includes properties of a primitive. The method includes partially traversing a spatial data structure that represents a three-dimensional image to identify an internal node of the spatial data structure. The internal node represents a portion of the three-dimensional image. The method also includes selecting a slave processing element from a plurality of slave processing elements. The selected processing element is associated with the internal node. The method further includes sending the primitive data to the selected slave processing element to traverse a portion of the spatial data structure to identify a leaf node of the spatial data structure. 12-29-2011

20110316864 MULTITHREADED SOFTWARE RENDERING PIPELINE WITH DYNAMIC PERFORMANCE-BASED REALLOCATION OF RASTER THREADS - A multithreaded rendering software pipeline architecture dynamically reallocates regions of an image space to raster threads based upon performance data collected by the raster threads. The reallocation of the regions typically includes resizing the regions assigned to particular raster threads and/or reassigning regions to different raster threads to better balance the relative workloads of the raster threads. 12-29-2011

20110317712 Recovering Data From A Plurality of Packets - A method includes receiving a plurality of packets at an integrated processor block of a network on a chip device. The plurality of packets includes a first packet that includes an indication of a start of data associated with a pixel shader application. The method includes recovering the data from the plurality of packets. The method also includes storing the recovered data in a dedicated packet collection memory within the network on the chip device. The method further includes retaining the data stored in the dedicated packet collection memory during an interruption event. Upon completion of the interruption event, the method includes copying packets stored in the dedicated packet collection memory prior to the interruption event to an inbox of the network on the chip device for processing. 12-29-2011

20110320719 PROPAGATING SHARED STATE CHANGES TO MULTIPLE THREADS WITHIN A MULTITHREADED PROCESSING ENVIRONMENT - A circuit arrangement and method make state changes to shared state data in a highly multithreaded environment by propagating or streaming the changes to multiple parallel hardware threads of execution in the multithreaded environment using an on-chip communications network and without attempting to access any copy of the shared state data in a shared memory to which the parallel threads of execution are also coupled. Through the use of an on-chip communications network, changes to the shared state data may be communicated quickly and efficiently to multiple threads of execution, enabling those threads to locally update their local copies of the shared state. Furthermore, by avoiding attempts to access a shared memory, the interface to the shared memory is not overloaded with concurrent access attempts, thus preserving memory bandwidth for other activities and reducing memory latency. Particularly for larger shared states, propagating the changes, rather than an entire shared state, further improves performance by reducing the amount of data communicated over the on-chip communications network. 12-29-2011

20110320724 DMA-BASED ACCELERATION OF COMMAND PUSH BUFFER BETWEEN HOST AND TARGET DEVICES - Direct Memory Access (DMA) is used in connection with passing commands between a host device and a target device coupled via a push buffer. Commands passed to a push buffer by a host device may be accumulated by the host device prior to forwarding the commands to the push buffer, such that DMA may be used to collectively pass a block of commands to the push buffer. In addition, a host device may utilize DMA to pass command parameters for commands to a command buffer that is accessible by the target device but is separate from the push buffer, with the commands that are passed to the push buffer including pointers to the associated command parameters in the command buffer. 12-29-2011

20110321049 Programmable Integrated Processor Blocks - An integrated processor block of the network on a chip is programmable to perform a first function. The integrated processor block includes an inbox to receive incoming packets from other integrated processor blocks of a network on a chip, an outbox to send outgoing packets to the other integrated processor blocks, an on-chip memory, and a memory management unit to enable access to the on-chip memory. 12-29-2011

The following is software and was discussed by a Sony game engine developer.

20120176364 REUSE OF STATIC IMAGE DATA FROM PRIOR IMAGE FRAMES TO REDUCE RASTERIZATION REQUIREMENTS - An apparatus, program product and method reuse static image data generated during rasterization of static geometry to reduce the processing overhead associated with rasterizing subsequent image frames. In particular, static image data generated one frame may be reused in a subsequent image frame such that the subsequent image frame is generated without having to re-rasterize the static geometry from the scene, i.e., with only the dynamic geometry rasterized. The resulting image frame includes dynamic image data generated as a result of rasterizing the dynamic geometry during that image frame, and static image data generated as a result of rasterizing the static image data during a prior image frame. 07-12-2012

20110320771 INSTRUCTION UNIT WITH INSTRUCTION BUFFER PIPELINE BYPASS - A circuit arrangement and method selectively bypass an instruction buffer for selected instructions so that bypassed instructions can be dispatched without having to first pass through the instruction buffer. Thus, for example, in the case that an instruction buffer is partially or completely flushed as a result of an instruction redirect (e.g., due to a branch mispredict), instructions can be forwarded to subsequent stages in an instruction unit and/or to one or more execution units without the latency associated with passing through the instruction buffer. 12-29-2011

20120192202 Context Switching On A Network On Chip - A network on chip (NOC) that includes IP blocks, routers, memory communications controllers, and network interface controllers, each IP block adapted to the network by an application messaging interconnect including an inbox and an outbox, one or more of the IP blocks including computer processors supporting a plurality of threads, the NOC also including an inbox and outbox controller configured to set pointers to the inbox and outbox, respectively, that identify valid message data for a current thread; and software running in the current thread that, upon a context switch to a new thread, is configured to: save the pointer values for the current thread, and reset the pointer values to identify valid message data for the new thread, where the inbox and outbox controller are further configured to retain the valid message data for the current thread in the boxes until context switches again to the current thread. 07-26-2012

[Flawless]

Re: PlayStation 4 Discussion

Game Informer Rumor: Next PlayStation to be revealed around GDC in March

The magazine suggests that both platform holders will reveal the hardware around GDC, which takes place in San Francisco between March 25-29, before showing off next-gen titles at E3.

"We hear that both Sony and Microsoft are targeting special Apple-style press conferences to unveil their platforms near the Game Developers Conference in late March," reads the report in the magazine's February 2013 issue.

"E3 in June may be the industry's biggest event, but both companies want to give their systems their own limelight.

"That doesn't mean E3 won't be without its surprises. Next-gen games will be announced at the convention in preparation for the systems' release at the end of the year."

"We hear that Sony in particular is determined not to come out last this time like the PlayStation 3 did this generation, so we'll have to see how soon it can get the PlayStation 4 out the door, and whether Microsoft is motivated to prevent this from happening."

[LingeringRegime]

Re: PlayStation 4 Discussion

I am excite.

[AUChase]

Re: PlayStation 4 Discussion

I always get nervous around new console news.

I don't want any changes to the controller, except maybe some better triggers.

[ILiveForThis]

Re: PlayStation 4 Discussion

I want this. Now.

I hate having to wait.

[RoyalBoyle78]

Now the excitement begins, I told myself my PS3 still gas life, but I'm only going One system this up coming gen and its Sony, PS4 only for me...will keep the the current 360 and kinect I currently have the the kids.


Sent from Gotham

[CaptainZombie]

Re: PlayStation 4 Discussion

Now the excitement begins, I told myself my PS3 still gas life, but I'm only going One system this up coming gen and its Sony, PS4 only for me...will keep the the current 360 and kinect I currently have the the kids.


Sent from Gotham

What is gas life? LOL!

[DickDalewood]

Re: PlayStation 4 Discussion

What is gas life? LOL!

It's what I live every day from my combination of pre-workout drinks, protein, eggs and 5-hour energies. Lol.

[RoyalBoyle78]

What is gas life? LOL!

Lmao. Auto correct sux


Sent from Gotham

[LastExit]

Re: PlayStation 4 Discussion

Anticipated price points for Playstation 4 and XBox 720 to be between $350 and $400....

http://bgr.com/2013/01/15/playstation-4-and-xbox-720-could-cost-just-350-expected-to-launch-this-fall-292400/

I'll believe this when I see it, but I do expect these consoles (especially the Playstation) to come in at a "reasonable" price as the PS3 was way too expensive and sales reflected how off the mark they were with their $500 and $600 price points.

I'm also hoping that both companies offer a solid warranty given the problems the XBox 360 had with the "red ring of death."

[ILiveForThis]

Re: PlayStation 4 Discussion

I feel as if the price point of between $300 and $400 is just right for a newly launched system. Anything above $400 may be a reach. Then again, it's not out of the possibility.